A
criminal case against a fired Santa ClaraCounty
deputy public defender accused of misleading a judge will not be dropped, even
though the judge says he was not misled, the prosecutor in the case told the
San Jose Mercury-News.

“The
record speaks for itself,” Deputy District Attorney Frank Dudley Berry Jr. said
in remarks published by the newspaper Monday. “We remain firmly committed to
this case.”

Thomas
Spielbauer, a deputy public defender for 23 years, was fired last month after
prosecutors claimed he misled Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Paul Teilh at a
January court hearing by claiming that a witness couldn’t be located and was
unavailable.

Spielbauer
allegedly had spoken to the witness at his home after investigators were unable
to locate him.

At
a hearing last week, Teilh said he was “deeply troubled and disappointed that
the public defender has taken drastic action against Deputy Public Defender
Thomas Spielbauer based on a faulty premise.” Teilh is retired but continues to
sit on assignment.

A
hearing on the criminal charge of deceiving the court, a misdemeanor violation
of Business & Professions Code Sec. 6128, is scheduled for Aug. 26.
Spielbauer is fighting both the criminal charge and the termination of his
employment by Public Defender Jose Villarreal.

Spielbauer
claims the public defender is biased because Spielbauer has opposed his
management of the office and tried to qualify a ballot initiative that would
have made the office of public defender elective. San
Francisco is the only California
county that now elects its public defender.

Both
the district attorney and the public defender have a political vendetta against
him, Spielbauer—a registered Libertarian and three-time candidate for the Santa
Clara Superior Court—claims. The Public Defender’s Office claims that
Spielbauer refused to cooperate in its internal investigation of the misconduct
accusation, while Spielbauer claims the investigation was being conducted
improperly.